Rand Paul Offers Chris Christie A Beer To Settle Foreign Policy Spat

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Tuesday that he wants to make up with New Jersey’s Republican governor Chris Christie.

Paul and Christie have been fighting about NSA surveillance and other foreign policy issues in what appears to represent one battle in the larger pre-2016 presidential primary, intra-GOP civil war (generally speaking the neocons vs. the neo-isolationists led by Paul) over the direction the party goes on national security issues.

The Kentucky Republican has even seen some high-profile support in recent days. “[A]t some point, even if you are a neoconservative, you need to take a deep breath to ask if our strategies in the Middle East have succeeded,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Even Sarah Palin got in on the spat. “I’m on team Rand,” she said this week.

But it seems like Paul has had enough. “I want to make up” with Christie, Paul said on CNN on Tuesday, adding that while he appreciates Palin’s support, he’d rather buy the New Jersey governor a beer than hold a grudge:

PAUL: I am from Kentucky so we are used to feuding. We can hold a grudge for a long time, but I’m kind of wanting to get rid of the grudge now. I want to make up —

CNN HOST ERIN BURNETT: Make up with Chris Christie.

PAUL: That’s right. I’ve offered him a beer. We can have a beer summit. I know he’s busy. I could even come to New Jersey for him and I might buy the beer and I’m notoriously very cheap. And I would offer to buy the beer.

BURNETT: Offer to buy the beer for Chris Christie. He might like that. He’s got some vacation coming up.

Whether Paul’s offer will calm the GOP foreign policy waters remains to be seen. Given that one GOP congressman also reportedly considering a presidential run recently compared Paul to Nazi appeasers, it doesn’t look like it will.